EXCLUSIVE WATCH | Pallavi Joshi on The Kashmir Files Unreported: ‘Nobody calls me to work in their films’

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Pallavi Joshi mentions why Vivek Agnihotri and she decided to come out with the project on The Kashmir Files Unreported after the grand success of The Kashmir Files. Vikek and Pallavi believe that to make a meaningful film one needs to do on-ground research. She talks about not getting roles in films and explains that the Bollywood mindset is such that once an actor becomes a producer, they believe that she isn’t open to acting.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

What more do we get to see in _The Kashmir Files Unreported_ ? And there are a lot of these that you wanted to say. So can you elaborate on that.

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There was a lot of research that we did and we collected over 700 testimonies and it is difficult to pick and choose stories from that and make it into a film, but somehow the impossible was achieved by Vivek Agnihotri and he wrote the script and it did very well.

But there were some people who said that this is all untrue and this never happened and that The Kashmir Files was just an imagination. And so a lot of people told us to get our research out. And hence we decided to come up with this docuseries The Kashmir Files Unreported where you hear the true accounts straight from the victims who have suffered through the genocide and who had to flee their home and what all happened to them. How they endured the entire period. So, it’s not actors playing a part anymore. They are the real people talking to the audience.

What is the thought process that you go through when you come up with such brutal projects? I am asking you this question because you are a mother and your responsibilities are huge.

There was a little amount of stress that I felt before making The Kashmir Files. But once we wrap my head around that we have to go ahead and tell honest stories, the paths become very much simpler after that. I know it’s easier said than done. But since we decided to make the stories where we are either dealing with subjects that are hard hitting or we are making honest films about a bunch of very hardworking people of India who have never got their due, we had to do it with absolute full-proof research.

Even for a film like The Vaccine War we went through two and half years of research before Vivek started writing the script. For The Kashmir Files we took four years and for The Delhi Files the research is still on. No one wants to spend so much time on research because everybody wants to make films and money. But our intention is not to make box-office hits. We never talk about our films in terms of hits and flops. But of course if it makes money, it makes us happy. But that is not the aim. The aim is to make good, honest Indian stories**.** So, the younger generation gets to know about their own motherland. And hopefully, young budding filmmakers get inspired by what Vivek and I are doing."

With the OTT boom, women’s roles are changing on screen and now you don’t need to be a certain age to be a lead. What is your take on that?

I have done just one show on OTT where we are playing our own age. Zeenat Aman is also in that show and she is the protagonist and if she can do it, so that the question you are asking me is actually justified that age is no barrier any more. But I think slowly and steadily people have started accepting that in cinema as well.

I may watch teenage love stories once in a while, but that is not going to be my staple food. But with cinema changing, we are seeing a lot of aging women and matured women on screen. Recently, Sharmila Tagore also made a statement when she did Gulmohar. So times are changing and with things changing as I am aging I am very happy about it.

How differently do you function as compared to Bollywood?

Bollywood is all about the stars. When a film is being marketed in Bollywood the directors and writers are given no importance. It is only the stars that are important in Bollywood. So, whatever projects go out for promotion, it is only the stars that we are talking about. So, if you are investing in something, I would like the project to be highlighted, because for me my project is the hero and that should come across. If I am making The Vaccine War, I want people to talk about the film because we have spent so much money making a project that never comes out in Bollywood.

Why don’t we get to see you more often in films?

Nobody actually calls me to work in their films anymore. That again is the Bollywood mindset, because the minute a person turns a producer and starts working in her films and with women more so, they believe that she is probably not going to act. And when you start working with your husband, they believe that she is not open to working with outside directors at all. So, there is this very deep conditioning that they have in their minds. I am okay with it if Bollywood doesn’t call me. Vivek writes brilliant roles for me and I am happy with that.

The Kashmir Files Unreported will premiere on 11th August on Zee5.